timothy a swan

Internet identity theft

I used to have a site that I used for my design business, but I long ago let the domain expire since I wasn’t interested in maintaining 2 separate web identities. Unfortunately, I never imagined that there would be people low enough to actually scrape down my entire site, purchase the expired domain, and then continue hosting the site as if it were mine but with the addition of spam links.

Nor did I believe that it would prove to be nearly impossible to take the site down. It contains my intellectual property, including my (now long outdated) portfolio and resumé, and even my email address and phone number. The domain is now registered in Russia, hosted by some faceless hosting company, and all of the domain contact information is being protected by Privacy Protect. At this point there seems to be no recourse but to let this die a natural death, but it pisses me off that people are going to think this lousy, spammy site is actually mine.

Pathetic.

HTML 5 and CSS 3: The Techniques You’ll Soon Be Using

A nuts and bolts explanation of using new markup of HTML 5 and CSS 3 to build a simple blog page. Combine with some javascript to bring HTML to even those browsers (you know who you are) that haven’t begun implementing HTML yet.

Dean Edwards has an awesome script in the works that will bring HTML 5 to all flavors of IE and fill missing holes in browsers with incomplete support. Can’t wait.

Oh, and don’t forget to visit the HTML 5 Doctor.

The Odd Lies of Sarah Palin: A roundup

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan: “After you have read these, ask yourself: what wouldn’t Sarah Palin lie about if she felt she had to?”

Boston to debut 'killer app' for municipal complaints

“City officials will soon debut Boston’s first official iPhone application, which will allow residents to snap photos of neighborhood nuisances - nasty potholes, graffiti-stained walls, blown street lights - and e-mail them to City Hall to be fixed.”

Accessibility is a harsh mistress [dive into mark]

"The accessibility orthodoxy does not permit people to question the value of features that are rarely useful and rarely used."

W3C and their cloudy crystal ball

XHTML 2 Working Group Expected to Stop Work End of 2009, W3C to Increase Resources on HTML 5

So, W3C effectively kills XHTML 2. In the interim will it be easier to code to HTML 4 strict and then convert to HTML 5, or just continue coding in XHTML. Sort of an important question when you're advising 100's of web producers managing hundreds of thousands of pages. Especially when your advice 5 years ago was to change from HTML 4 to XHTML transitional. Oops.

Michael Chabon: The Wilderness of Childhood

"The sandlots and creek beds, the alleys and woodlands have been abandoned in favor of a system of reservations--Chuck E. Cheese, the Jungle, the Discovery Zone: jolly internment centers mapped and planned by adults with no blank spots aside from doors marked staff only. When children roller-skate or ride their bikes, they go forth armored as for battle, and their parents typically stand nearby."

Information is a task :: Gerry McGovern

This attitude has driven so many government websites to the point of uselessness. The Freedom of Information Act definitely has good intentions. An unintended consequence, however, is that stuff that serves no useful function, is never maintained, never reviewed and never deleted gets published in large quantities. But it’s there, this information, because it’s important to have lots and lots of information.

Words & Music

My favorite albums since I can remember hearing an album in its entirety. My rules:

• no greatest hits;
• no wishful thinking (no, I wasn't ready for The Stooges or The Velvet Underground when I was 9);
• as little bias toward what I wish were my favorite for a given year as possible;
• no leaving out an album because I've already listed the artist.

I've left out some very good stuff (Television's Marquee Moon and The Clash, both from 1977, being the prime examples), but I can play most of these from track one to the end in my head. I'm pretty sure I've left out some very bad stuff as well.

First Rule of Usability? Don't Listen to Users